Kickstarter: Crowdsourcing cash

Behind every great product is... money. Yes, you need a good idea. But without the cash to turn it into reality, it's just an idea.

That's where Kickstarter comes in.

The site harnesses the Internet's power to bring large groups of people together to generate funding for projects.

Depending on how much you pledge to a project, you're eligible to receive rewards back - usually the final product at a cheaper price than it will eventually retail for. And no money is taken unless a project receives all the funding it needs.

And you'd be surprised how much money can be raised through Kickstarter. Game developer Double Fine raised over $3 million for its latest game through the site.